No Lifer

I've thought about it, but never did. There's only been a few instances where I live that the power went out long enough that I would have made use of one though. If I did get one, I'd want a propane one, so it burns cleaner and overall don't have to worry too much about it sitting for a long time before being used. But when you go propane you're now in the standby generator territory and they are more expensive. There's natural gas ones too, but I think I would go propane as it's a bit more "off grid". If something large scale happens and natural gas AND power is out then I'd be kinda screwed.

Solar panels would be my next idea, problem is, ironicly, freezing rain. The ones on my shed are out of commission for the year as we got freezing rain in early December and now they are just caked with this crusty/icy snow layer that can't come off. They are producing just enough to keep the battery trickle charged but it would not run any serious load. If I had a bigger property I'd just put up a vertical array with awning to protect from the snow and rain.

Super Moderator

Freezing rain hitting large parts of Southwestern Ontario turned a typical Wednesday morning upside down for thousands, shutting schools, cancelling more than a dozen flights in and out of London and creating headaches on roads across the region.

Both the Thames Valley District and the London District Catholic school boards announced early Wednesday the cancellation of all classes due to poor road conditions. All administrative buildings from both boards were also closed for the day.

While weather conditions forced the cancellation of classes at the University of Waterloo, both Fanshawe College and Western University were open Wednesday. Both local schools, however, were asking students to be careful on their way to classes.

Lifer

Not here, power outages are actually pretty rare for us (they do have utility crews go through and trim branches near power lines every year).
The longest power outage I've had in fourteen years living in this town (two different houses) was a couple summers ago when we had a massive windstorm thing that had trees down all over the place, it was out for eight hours or so.

Platinum Member

I've thought about it, but never did. There's only been a few instances where I live that the power went out long enough that I would have made use of one though. If I did get one, I'd want a propane one, so it burns cleaner and overall don't have to worry too much about it sitting for a long time before being used. But when you go propane you're now in the standby generator territory and they are more expensive. There's natural gas ones too, but I think I would go propane as it's a bit more "off grid". If something large scale happens and natural gas AND power is out then I'd be kinda screwed.

Solar panels would be my next idea, problem is, ironicly, freezing rain. The ones on my shed are out of commission for the year as we got freezing rain in early December and now they are just caked with this crusty/icy snow layer that can't come off. They are producing just enough to keep the battery trickle charged but it would not run any serious load. If I had a bigger property I'd just put up a vertical array with awning to protect from the snow and rain.

We typically have the opposite problem down here. My next door neighbor works at the power plant, and during the Summer when the grid is pulling too much current, they will intentionally do a temporary brown out. He said that they hope to catch peoples HVAC systems while running so they won't cycle down properly, and no longer cool and reduce the load. This is really bad on the HVAC's starter capacitor. I used to have to drive home from work and reset everything, but my wife has gotten real good at turning the thermostats to off, flipping the breakers off, and letting the HVAC system cycle down for about five minutes. Then everything usually powers back up fine unless the starter capacitor is shot.

Platinum Member

We apparently are having a slightly below average temperature winter. Our average winter high temperature is 57.4F and this winter it has been 57F. A whole .4F cooler. We've also had 6.75 inches of rain this winter, which is 2.25 inches above normal.

Last year was bad, the weather was all over the place, we got freezing rain several times throughout the year. By spring the driveway was a huge mess. Can't do shit with that since it creates multi layers of ice crust. Pretty much have to hire a backhoe or wait for it to melt in May/June when it stays hot through the night.

Diamond Member

Got maybe 4" of snow last night then 2-3" of sleet. I snowblowed right before it started sleeting, then snowblowed after the ~1" of sleet (at 9:30p.m.), and this morning I just made two tire tracks with my shovel up the driveway.